An inaugural dissertation on the influenza / [Robert Johnston].

  • Johnston, Robert
Date:
1793
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An inaugural dissertation on the influenza / [Robert Johnston]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    eee J thra,?’ a circumftance which is not only infeparable from the difeafe, but ‘‘ occafions all the troublefome fymptoms that ever attend it. Swiediaur, in his excellent treatife on the venereal dif- eafe, calls the gonorrhea virulenta, a local inflammation of the urethra in men, and of the vagina in women, the difcharge being only the mucus ufually fecreted in preter- natural quantity, fomewhat changed in colour and con-’ fiftence by the ftimulus applied to thefe parts ; and in ex-' prefs terms, fays it is like the difcharge from the nofe and’ lungs, on taking cold, where the mucus affumes nearly- the fame appearances ‘It has already been remarked, that the proximate caufe and fymptoms in general of a catarrh from cold, and thofe of the influenza, were very nearly, if not alto- gether the fame [except m degree}; which may lead us to conclude, that as an inflammation of the lining of the urethra brings on a preternatural difcharge of mucus from thence, altered in colour and confiftence ; fo, in the in- fluenza, a like affection of the membrane lining the nofe, fauces, and bronchie [being a fimilar fecreting furface] will be productive of a refembling difcharge. A certain degree of inflammation favours a copious flow of mucus from the urethra, and a yethigher inflammation will fupprefs the running entirely, bringing on’ févere pains in different parts of the body, with an increafed action of the heart and arteries. . The like is obfervable in catarrhs, where a certain degree of inflammation ex- cites a free difcharge from the nofe, fauces, and bronchiz ; whilft an increafed inflammation of the internal furface of thefe parts not only fuppreffes fecretion there, but is fol- lowed by a fenfe of fullnefs in one or both noftrils, dyfp-
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